[Blindguy]

Asking a coach about umpire performance is a way to rate an official, not improve officiating. In our state, coaches do rate officials. The coaches get to pick which officials work their playoff games. Coach puts you on his list, you just got rated. Not one coach puts you on his list, you just got rated. We pay dues to organizations which take on the responsibly of education and training. I believe that most veteran (>3 years experience) officials do very little to try and better their game. Our chapter meetings are obligatory and hold no value. People do not ask questions because the questioning official looks ignorant. I believe the question posed should be: How do we energize the veteran official? The best summer games in my area are tournaments, not league play. Those tournament games are assigned to what is believed to be inferior officials, officials who do not belong to the local high school or college association. (And they don’t even shine their shoes) Some of these games determine which teams will go to the Connie Mack World Series in Farmington, NM. Some consider the CMWS to be the top amateur baseball in the land. I note the importance of the games to show perhaps the difference between “Smitty” and our selves is not as great as we would like to believe. So transparent, a TD of a very important tournament is willing to use “Smitty” to save ten bucks. I think our local organizations should use some of our dues to help defray the cost of a real clinic. A clinic put on by professional umpires. Film of a live game (scrimmage, so umpires could be rotated) should be mandatory. I should get more for my dues than just a rule book at the beginning of the year. My opinion: There is not one single thing that would improve ones performance more than film of a live game. Asking a coach about your performance is not constructive criticism.